It is often necessary to sort objects being conveyed on a conveyor. The sorting may be necessitated by downstream events (such as too little or too much product at a subsequent station), by the need to separate objects based on their identity (which can be indicated by a bar code), for separation of objects based on their final destination, or for other reasons. Further, the objects may be conveyed in an irregular pattern, with irregular spacing or irregular product orientation. For any or all of these reasons, or for other reasons, it may be desirable to quickly determine which specific objects in a group of objects are to be diverted from one conveying path to another conveying path, and to accomplish that diversion without affecting the non-selected objects.
The various embodiments of the invention shown and described herein provide novel and unobvious ways to divert products from one conveyor path to another conveyor path.